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Original poster

To those who are mortgage free...

103 replies

outlanderish · 30/07/2025 18:36

Never thought I'd be writing this but as of today we’re officially mortgage free!!! We've been squirrelling away for 8 years to make it happen and received inheritance from DP's grandparents which helped us massively.

I thought I’d feel absolutely over the moon… but weirdly, I still feel the same? Maybe a bit of relief, but not the huge joy I expected Blush

If you’ve paid your mortgage off (or are close), how did you celebrate? Did it feel like a big moment, or did life just carry on as normal?

Also curious how others managed to pay theirs off, did you manage it by doing lump sums, years of slogging, downsizing ?

OP posts:
mamagogo1 · 30/07/2025 23:03

we went out for dinner and ordered a whole bottle of not (quite) the cheapest wine

Itsabummer · 30/07/2025 23:29

just a bottle of bubbly, but the feeling that every part of the house was ours and no one could take it away was wonderful. (unless a care home is needed and then it’s all for nowt !)

BurntBroccoli · 30/07/2025 23:35

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 30/07/2025 18:42

two separate memories for me.

  1. It was bittersweet and tinged with grief, as it was confirmed I not only had paid the mortgage but officially owned the house according to land registry, on the first Valentine’s Day after DH had died.

2)Used his life assurance to pay off the mortgage, a couple of month earlier and felt absolutely nothing but sheer relief at not having to worry anymore about a roof over my head and bemusement at the bank assistant being so joyfully excited she had helped someone pay off the outstanding amount.

Yes, I remember when I rang my bank to ask to pay the final instalment. The call handler was really lovely and asked what I was doing to celebrate!

It is a good feeling knowing you can’t lose your home and I did sacrifice a lot to be able to do it by overpaying a lot while interest rates were very low.

Interested in this thread?

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General money
Atallglassimdof · 30/07/2025 23:40

The secret to paying off your mortgage is to have taken it out 20 years ago.

20 years ago I was earning £30k and my house cost me £150k.

Today I earn £65k and my house is worth £600k.

Atallglassimdof · 30/07/2025 23:44

Atallglassimdof · 30/07/2025 23:40

The secret to paying off your mortgage is to have taken it out 20 years ago.

20 years ago I was earning £30k and my house cost me £150k.

Today I earn £65k and my house is worth £600k.

This is to say houses were much, much affordable all those years ago.

30 to 35 years seems to becoming standard for people looking to buy a home.

KOALABEAR12 · 30/07/2025 23:50

Paid mine off with inheritance aged 37, never took out a new mortgage either. Was nice to do some huge long haul trips which you don’t normally do until retirement so that was nice. No massive celebration just nice to use the mortgage money for something more enjoyable and memorable

Dutchhouse14 · 30/07/2025 23:58

I also thought I'd feel really elated when we paid ours off but it was a bit of an anti climax.
I think because we'd paid the balance off with an inheritance but then it took ages to get written confirmation from mortgage company that it was settled so a bit drawn out.
The mortgage payment was a relatively low percentage of income so seemed to be quickly absorbed but it is lovely to think we own this house! On several occasions I didn't think we'd ever manage it, had been paying a mortgage for nearly 30 years ( moved and/orr extended mortgage several times)
Anyway congratulations OP

caringcarer · 30/07/2025 23:59

We overpaid for years whilst I terest rates were really low and paid ours off almost 8 years early. We went out for a nice meal and had a little celebration. I wouldn't have been celebrating if I'd inherited money from my Mum dying to pay it off early. As it happens I did inherit from my Mum but 4 years after I'd already paid off my mortgage.

Dogsrbrill · 31/07/2025 00:03

It was a huge relief, felt we should have had a congratulations card or nice acknowledgment from the building society , but didn't get anything. It's not really the sort of thing that you celebrate in public. Longer term , when jobs are at risk of redundancy , you know that you won't lose the roof over your head which is nice.

echt · 31/07/2025 00:10

I found it a little ant-climactic too, though later. There was a glow that lasted a few days.

Money had been sitting around in an off-set account and I thought I'd pay it off so dropped into the bank on the way home from work. I didn't realise it was such big deal and the manager was out in a trice! That bit made me laugh.

I was about 64/5, having bought the house about 7 years earlier. My husband had died and I was approaching the time when I wanted to go PT before retirement at 67 so wanted it all tidied up.

MadisonAvenue · 31/07/2025 00:13

We paid ours off with an inheritance earlier this year.
It was a bit of a faff in the end. We couldn’t pay it off via online banking as the amount was too high for the daily limit, we haven’t got a local bank branch to be able to go in at a convenient time to do a bank transfer so we had to dig out a cheque book, last used in 2016, to pay it off by cheque.
That didn’t go to plan as my husband signed the cheque but it was returned due to his signature not matching what the bank had on record from him from when he started banking with them in the 1980s!
We ended up having to do a few overpayments.

Baby26 · 31/07/2025 07:41

Atallglassimdof · 30/07/2025 23:40

The secret to paying off your mortgage is to have taken it out 20 years ago.

20 years ago I was earning £30k and my house cost me £150k.

Today I earn £65k and my house is worth £600k.

Maybe for some. For us, we moved in and got our first mortgage in 2015, only 10 years ago. Paid off in 8 years. We're not sure it's our forever home, so we may upsize one day and get another mortgage though.

LottieMary · 31/07/2025 07:46

I think I’d spend the next months payment on a holiday or really special treat, and then save it 😂

Overrunwithlego · 31/07/2025 08:08

We paid ours off in our early 30s when DH was able to cash in shares he had been given as part of employment with a starter business that took off. We had grand visions of saving the money every month but ended up just somehow spending more day to day which seemed a waste and we felt we weren’t making the most of the opportunity we had been given. So we re-mortgaged our house to buy a smaller rental property outright. The rent from that now pays our mortgage, and in 10 years we’ll own two houses mortgage free, one with a rental income.

As the mortgage is much smaller, if we have any void periods with the rental property then it is not a major issue for us. It has given us more freedom work wise and we don’t have to be so focused on salary. it enables us to be good landlords to our lovely tenants who look after the house whilst paying about 65% market rate. And it will provide a pension stream in future.

namechangeGOT · 31/07/2025 08:13

I was 36 when we paid ours off. Lump sum. Didn’t ’celebrate’ as such but what we paid in mortgage payments pays for holidays now.

Mikart · 31/07/2025 08:47

Bought house outright after a divorce 12 years ago.

ByQuaintAzureWasp · 31/07/2025 08:51

For a lot of people it's not a celebratory time as clearing mortgage means death of a loved one.

DJEvil · 31/07/2025 08:57

We went against the advice of our FA and paid it off a few years ago. We were late thirties, early 40’s.
Our payment was only about £300 a month though and the extra money quickly got swallowed up with the rising utilities and grocery costs. So yeah all in all an anti climax but it is nice to know the house is all ours.

notacooldad · 31/07/2025 09:00

I'd planned to go out and celebrate but it was during covid so that was that!!

I did splash out with what would have been a months mortgage payment on a treat that I'd always wanted though.

notacooldad · 31/07/2025 09:05

For a lot of people it's not a celebratory time as clearing mortgage means death of a loved one.
People can become mortgage free for many reasons. Both my friend and sister became MF after getting a diagnosis of breast cancer as it was a critical illness.
Both celebrated with a fantastic meal out.
Maybe but the op was looking for more positive stories.

Lots of people over pay mortgages and make sacrifices to be mortgage free so its a relief and worth celebrating.

I think the op was looking for more positive stories.

echt · 31/07/2025 10:13

notacooldad · 31/07/2025 09:05

For a lot of people it's not a celebratory time as clearing mortgage means death of a loved one.
People can become mortgage free for many reasons. Both my friend and sister became MF after getting a diagnosis of breast cancer as it was a critical illness.
Both celebrated with a fantastic meal out.
Maybe but the op was looking for more positive stories.

Lots of people over pay mortgages and make sacrifices to be mortgage free so its a relief and worth celebrating.

I think the op was looking for more positive stories.

The OP owned up to an anti-climactic reaction. She did not ask for others to be positive.

Read the OP's OP.

Steelworks · 31/07/2025 10:15

It was a bit of an anticlimax for us also. Also a bittersweet moment as we only did it through an inheritance (in-laws passed away), so tinged with a sense of sadness. I think we celebrated with a takeaway.

Wigtopia · 31/07/2025 10:24

Mumofteenandtween · 30/07/2025 19:07

We mainly paid off by boring overpaying. When interest rates went down we kept paying the old amount. When we got a pay rise we bumped up our direct debit. I got an annual bonus each year (worth 1 - 2 months salary) that also got shoved in. Dh also got made redundant and then got another job pretty quick so that money got put in and paid off about an eighth of the original mortgage or a quarter of the mortgage as it was then.

When we paid it off we had a 1 year old and a 4 year old who both felt that sleep was for wimps and liked to tag team through the night. So we were too tired to celebrate. Or do anything really. I think Dh said “so we will pay the mortgage off tomorrow” and I said “cool”. And that was it.

But what I did realise a few months later was that there was a definite level of relief that slowly trickled through. Like a weight was off our shoulders. I had a similar feeling when both my parents and in laws were all fully Covid vaccinated. Like I didn’t know I had been holding my breath until then but - wow - it felt good to breathe again.

Still working on paying it off but seem to have a similar approach to you, just overpaying where we can and any pay increases or bonuses have been thrown at the mortgage.

all being well we should be done in about 3 years.

when we are done we are hoping to each drop a day at work each to have a better work life balance 🤩

BestIsWest · 31/07/2025 10:33

Got made redundant so used a chunk of my redundancy money. It was tinged with sadness because I loved that job. We’d already paid off a significant chunk by overpaying when we could. I can’t say I noticed that we were much better off because I wasn’t earning as much in my next job.

TickTockBridget · 31/07/2025 10:52

DSis and I sold the family home when our DPs died, and paid off our mortgages (relatively small, since we both bought circa 2008). It was bittersweet, as I’d far rather have a mortgage and my parents still around, but in ‘what Dad would have wanted’ terms, hard to argue with.